Beauty queen Chidimma Adetshina, who has been at the centre of a fierce nationality row, is to be stripped of her South African identity and travel documents. She withdrew from the competition in August after the department announced that her mother might have committed “identity theft” to become a South African national.
The Department of Home Affairs made it public by announcing the withdrawal of her ID papers to a parliamentary committee on Tuesday. Tommy Makhode, the top civil servant at the department, said Ms Adetshina’s mother would also have her documents cancelled as they had both failed to meet Monday’s deadline to provide reasons why they should be eligible to keep them.
The Department of Home Affairs began investigating her case after she became a finalist in the Miss South Africa pageant, but faced criticism as people questioned her eligibility to compete because her mother has Mozambican roots and her father is Nigerian.
Since the departments revealed her Mothers crime in August, Ms Adestshina couldn’t have participated in the unlawful actions since she was an infant at the time. Ms Adestahina has previously said she was born in the South African township of Soweto. She told that BBC that she still saw herself as “proudly South African” and “proudly Nigerian”.
She told that BBC that she still saw herself as proudly South African and proudly Nigerian .Ms Adetshina has just arrived in Mexico to represent Nigeria at the Miss Universe competition to be held on 16 November. She will compete against contestants from across the world, including Mia le Roux, who won this year’s Miss South Africa contest.
